World’s Most Spectacular Corporate Buildings

World’s Spectacular Corporate Buildings

Power Structures: The World’s Most Spectacular Corporate Buildings

Best Commercial Developments across the Globe

Hamburg, April 9, 2013 – The taller, the bigger, the more eye-catching the better: more and more companies around the world are investing millions in spectacular corporate buildings in a desire to express their identity through architecture. Buildings range from offices at dizzying heights, to daring designs by star architects, to large company campuses. But, despite their diversity, these architectural calling cards all have one thing in common: they are all – put simply – impressive.

The world’s most dazzling corporate buildings have now been compiled by a jury of building experts from Emporis (www.emporis.com), the international provider of building data. Innovative design, visual impact and function of significant corporate architecture served as the selection criteria. Structures from all over the world, housing companies from all kinds of industries, were considered.

Big companies such as the Malaysian petroleum giant Petronas, or the Bank of China, use the imposing effect of skyscrapers to represent their economic might. The 452 meter-tall twin Petronas Towers – the tallest buildings in the world up until 2004 – and the 367 meter-tall Bank of China Tower count among the world’s tallest corporate palaces.

Other companies create buildings that are outsize versions of their most important products. Thus the 101 meter-tall tower at BMW’s headquarters in Munich is intended to evoke the pistons of a four-cylinder engine. adidas commissioned a similarly symbolic building: the footprint and facade of adidas LACES, completed in 2011, bring to mind a giant sneaker.

It is not unusual for renowned architects to be responsible for designing such buildings, with Foster + Partners, who have already provided several firms with an accomplished architectural presence, leading the way. Last year saw the completion of their crescent-shaped skyscraper The Bow for the Canadian energy company EnCana. Their next major project, Apple’s new headquarters in Silicon Valley, is already in the starting blocks – a ring-shaped campus 230 meters in diameter reminiscent of a futuristic spaceship.